Longtime major Genesee County
business employee, Heather Anthony, settled her lawsuit against her former
employer and the company’s owner, by accepting the case evaluation of $250,000.

In
May of 2012, Anthony was approached by Owner to meet her on a Saturday in a
Grand Blanc parking lot. Having worked
for Owner for 15 years, Anthony did as requested. Upon arriving, Owner entered her vehicle,
offered to give her “what she needed” as she had “what he wanted”, forcibly
kissed her, and left three $100 bills in her car’s cupholder. Owner expected an ongoing pay-for-sex
relationship.

The
shock of this made Anthony physically ill and created substantial emotional
distress knowing that, although she refused his advances more than once, she
would have to see Owner again, probably on a continual basis. Significantly, Owner used his power and
influence at the company to obtain Anthony’s cell phone number, which he used
to call her – and no other employee – while he was out of town with his
wife. He also tried to meet with Anthony
while in the office.

Anthony
reported the incident to the Company’s CEO who stated at her deposition that
she believed Anthony. CEO did an
investigation, but did nothing satisfactory to resolve the issue, thereby
leaving Anthony unable to work and constructively discharged from her only
source of income and a job she successfully held for 15 years. Anthony also made a report to the Grand Blanc
Township Police Department.

Defendant
Company, in a Motion and Brief filed with the Court, took the position that
Owner did “at most…what many men do, i.e. used his wealth and ability to
provide material favors to a woman, as an inducement to enter into a sexual
relationship.” This outrageous position,
coupled with the CEO's deposition testimony that she did not believe that
Anthony was making the incident up to extort money from Owner and his company,
essentially sealed Defendants’ fates.
Curiously, Defendants offered the purported extortionist and shake-down
artist, Heather Anthony, her job back (!), which included handing out company paychecks
to the employees she supervised!

The
case settled through Case Evaluation for a total sum of $250,000 - $75,000 as
to Company, and $175,000 as to Owner.
Had the case gone to trial, Defendants would have had to pay trebled
damages pursuant to Michigan's Ethnic Intimidation statute.

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